Frontlines: Leechers and Feeders

[MisterNublet]

The current system of rewarding exp, series, and tomes at the end of a match because one clicked 'commence' on the duty pop without taking their performance into consideration is being abused by players who refuse to participate.

These players often try to mask the fact they're not participating by constantly throwing themselves at enemy players, because it makes it more difficult to spot them vs someone standing in one spot on the map the entire match.

Once the game ends, it doesn't matter that the scoreboard shows them having thrown the match because they have already received their rewards, and are off to do it again with a new group of people in a new match.

Even when you do end up noticing one of these players, pointing them out is quickly met with hostility, and other alliance members trying to defend them. "It's just Frontlines" and "I'm only here for the exp" constantly being used as if to excuse their behavior.

It has been way past due to fix the broken system that allows such lethargic and poor behavior. Relying on players to send nearly a full-party worth of player reports after every match isn't a functional system.



This picture was from 5 matches. A vast majority of these players had multiple 100s (not sprouts).

[ElHeggunte]

I hate them too, but how do you propose they fix it? Adjusting the rewards just screws players who join for things like tomes but still try their best. Making it easier for you to report them (though it’s important to note that they technically aren’t doing anything wrong—there’s no rule against being a feeder) sounds like something that would be ripe for abuse instead of being used for the purpose you propose.

[MisterNublet]

I hate them too, but how do you propose they fix it? Adjusting the rewards just screws players who join for things like tomes but still try their best.

Rewards based on performance. Square Enix needs to get rid of the kid gloves and stop pussyfooting around by taking a stance on what kind of performance/standard of play a player should present when queuing into a PvP match. Take the median or average (which ever is more lenient) damage dealt and K/A-D ratio and make that the baseline and go from there. Easy to see that some of the players that go 0 kills 10 deaths and damage equal to their gapcloser (to die quicker) should receive zero duty rewards.

Making it easier for you to report them (though it’s important to note that they technically aren’t doing anything wrong—there’s no rule against being a feeder) sounds like something that would be ripe for abuse instead of being used for the purpose you propose.

Win-Trading. It doesn't have to be a ranked system or Crystalline Conflicts for feeding to be considered an action meant to manipulate win-rate. Even if that was the case, Frontlines still records overall performance and weekly performance, so players who get themselves killed for the purpose of ending the game faster is still in violation while negatively affecting other players win-rate which is reportable. You can also argue lethargic game play by not performing their role as a participating as a team player.

[Vandi]

Rewards based on performance. Square Enix needs to get rid of the kid gloves and stop pussyfooting around by taking a stance on what kind of performance/standard of play a player should present when queuing into a PvP match. Take the median or average (which ever is more lenient) damage dealt and K/A-D ratio and make that the baseline and go from there. Easy to see that some of the players that go 0 kills 10 deaths and damage equal to their gapcloser (to die quicker) should receive zero duty rewards.

I unapologetically agree with the above statement. The fundamental problem however, runs much deeper, meaning:


Yoshi and his devs deliberately cater to casuals just to keep drawing people to pvp.


This is nothing more than a bi product of a problem that’s going on for years with FFxiv pvp. Notice we have no crits, no auto attack, no gear bonuses? The devs have gutted EVERYTHING that gives an actually dedicated pvper whose willing to invest their time and energy to optimize their job’s performance so as to keep it level with people who could care less about combat…just to get their rewards. This is also the reason premades are formed, because individuals who genuinely care about and enjoy pvp are SICK of getting matched with these types of players and having to get killed because of their lack of drive.

So yeah, toooootally agree there needs to be a bar met for rewards distributed.

[IDontPetLalas]

I hate them too, but how do you propose they fix it? Adjusting the rewards just screws players who join for things like tomes but still try their best. Making it easier for you to report them (though it’s important to note that they technically aren’t doing anything wrong—there’s no rule against being a feeder) sounds like something that would be ripe for abuse instead of being used for the purpose you propose.

Two points - agreed you don't want to just report anyone for being a "feeder" when they could legitimately be in one of their very first FL. I'm also come across people who honestly didn't know that dying resulted in a loss of points.

Point two however regarding whether feeding is "wrong" ? I have yet to be in any PvP game where this wasn't considered to be "wrong" - it's likely covered by

"Aiding the enemy / Uncooperative behavior / Lethargic behavior Refers to an act of performing actions that give an advantage to an enemy (monsters, or the opposing team/players in PvP content) by not performing the necessary gameplay required of the situation. This may be combined with combat sabotage as well."

See https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...&la=1&ret=rule

In a game that is focussed on PvP, with dedicated PvP community, these players won't pull these shenanigans or if they do, they don't get invited to premades, no one wants someone who is actively helping the opposing teams to get the match over with/to get it over with as quickly as possible/ to help their friends on the other team/etc.

[Middie]

I'm not sure, those numbers aren't impossible.

I have been in FL where my team is absolutely wrecked by the other two that have the better co-ordination and DRK/DRG/AST comps. Like we're still at 0 and the other two are half way to victory type of thing. Very litte in damage/assists because we're being completely trounced.
(And it's not like we're not attacking as a group, just not working versus what the other team has)

I've also been on the other end where we just wreck a specific team, killing them over and over. Not because they're not trying, but we have the better comp/coord. So our assists/dmg reflects this.

I laugh thinking about it, but first trying Ninja, I got those kind of deaths, haha. I kept over-extending and had no clue what I was doing. My survival was better as a Monk, but I suspect by then I was better at not overextending myself.

The 3 team setup does allow for some very wild swings in performance.

That said, I'll try and pay attention to the next time there's a team being completely murdered. It'll be interesting to see the numbers.

[Enjuden]

I hate them too, but how do you propose they fix it? Adjusting the rewards just screws players who join for things like tomes but still try their best. Making it easier for you to report them (though it’s important to note that they technically aren’t doing anything wrong—there’s no rule against being a feeder) sounds like something that would be ripe for abuse instead of being used for the purpose you propose.

Frankly, you just ban everyone who does less than X amount of damage from playing the mode.

Anything under 100k is an obvious leech. Under 500k you're basically trolling unless it's the crystal map or you just hard lost, where it likely still is griefing if it's the crystal map.

The mode is all about damage, and hitting over 100k is extremely braindead to do with how much aoe barf jobs have.

If they want to play so badly that they'll grief, they should just specifically lock out all pvp content from the account. They'll grief in other ways, but if they play like that in pve they'll get banned. Just the GMs do not care whatsoever about PvP, so they might as well just automate it and give out permanent content bans.

Before the 'smart' comments about how 100k is too easy, it's an arbitrary number. If it were me, it'd be 500k at minimum since it will force even the worst player to participate, but better to not tell the number.

[Gaiinahat]

Under 500k you're basically trolling unless it's the crystal map or you just hard lost, where it likely still is griefing if it's the crystal map.

I call BS. I've struggled to get over 500k damage on any class other than Scholar. I may not have been very good at PvP, but that doesn't mean I wasn't trying, or being a troll or griefing.

[Mawlzy]

I call BS. I've struggled to get over 500k damage on any class other than Scholar. I may not have been very good at PvP, but that doesn't mean I wasn't trying, or being a troll or griefing.

My lowest damage numbers are usually in matches where I get stuck on the same team as a premade and the match ends quickly with a lopsided win.